Why Colorado’s Temperature Swings Make Climate-Controlled Storage a Must
Temperature swings in Colorado are a given. Summer temperatures in the 90s with high-altitude sun and winters bringing hard freezes, wind chills well below zero and cold snaps. This puts real stress on anything sitting in storage, from wood furniture to old family photographs.
At Guardian Storage, we offer climate-controlled storage units for this very reason.
Colorado’s climate is shaped by elevation, dry air and its location on the edge of the Rockies. As a result, daily and seasonal temperature shifts are common.
A 50-degree swing in a single day. Freeze-thaw cycles. High winds.
Think about your objects sitting in a standard unit that isn’t insulated or shaded. Now add in humidity levels that swing quickly when storms roll through, stressing materials that expand and contract with moisture.
Whether you’re in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, or out toward Grand Junction, your belongings are dealing with a lot more thermal stress than they would in a climate with steadier weather.
How do temperature swings affect my storage unit?
Wood furniture and instruments expand and contract with the change in temperature. This can lead to warping, cracking and loosened joints. Many people store their instruments in a unit due to not having the space at home, and when these precious items are stored in a until without climate control, the sound can actually change the next time you go to play them.
Let’s take a guitar for instance. A dried-out guitar top often sounds thinner and more brittle, losing some of the warmth and resonance of a well-conditioned guitar. A guitar’s steel strings and metal hardware contract at a different rate than wood, which can throw off intonation and tuning stability.
Electronics are sensitive to heat and condensation. Rapid temperature changes can cause moisture to form inside devices such as guitar pick-ups or amplifiers or stereos, leading to corrosion on circuit boards.
Let’s take an older speaker system for instance. Older speaker cones (paper) and surrounds (foam or rubber) are highly sensitive to heat and dryness. Heat accelerates the breakdown of foam surrounds, causing them to crumble, crack or disintegrate entirely.
Photos, documents and books are especially vulnerable in hot and cold temperatures. Paper absorbs and releases moisture as humidity shifts, which causes yellowing, brittleness and mold growth.
If you are storing leather and fabric items, like couches or clothing, they can crack, stiffen or develop mildew when they’re subjected to repeated hot-cold, dry-humid cycles.
Artwork and canvases can crack or the canvas can loosen from its frame as temperature changes cause the materials to expand and contract at different rates.
A climate-controlled unit keeps temperature (and often humidity) within a consistent, moderate range year-round. It makes a big difference, especially if you’re storing items for more than a season.
Every Guardian Storage location in Colorado offers climate-controlled units, with locations in Boulder, Frederick, Fort Collins, Greeley, Louisville, Longmont, Superior, Westminster and Grand Junction.
Pair that with our gated access, video monitoring and friendly on-site teams, and you’ve got a storage experience built to protect what matters to you.
